Cassadee Pope was born on August 28, 1989 in Palm Beach,
Florida. She was the lead vocalist for
the pop/rock band Hey Monday. They put
out one studio album and three EP’s and toured with the likes of FallOut
Boy. Cassadee released her debut
self-titled solo EP in May 2012. That
same year, she won Season 3 of NBC’s ‘The Voice’ under the direction of her
coach Blake Shelton. In January 2013 she
signed with Republic Nashville, an imprint of Big Machine Records. She released her debut album FRAME BY FRAME
on October 8, 2013. It peaked at No 1 on
the U.S. country charts and No 16 in Canada.
The album opens with ‘Good Times’ penned by Nathan Chapman,
Sarah Buxton, and Blair Daly. Chapman
has worked with the likes of Taylor Swift and Point of Grace. This song is upbeat country and is all about
having fun: “It’s time to sing about the good times/C’mon lets rock it ‘til the
sun shines/Now that you got it, don’t you waste it/Ah, can’t you feel it?/Can’t
you taste it?/Oh yeah, I really wanna put a smile on your lips/Like an 8th
grade kiss/Put a swing in your hips, come on move like this/And sing about the
good times, good times, yeah”.
‘Champagne’ is a pulsating song that finds Cassadee intoxicated with
infatuation: “Yeah, you’re my champagne/Baby you go straight to my head/Just
one taste/I’m about as high as I can get/Words trippin’, hearts skippin’/One
look and my world’s spinning out/You’re my champagne (2X)”.
The album’s wonderful debut single, ‘Wasting All These
Tears’, came out May 31, 2013. It was
penned by Caitlyn Smith and Rollie Gaalswyk and debuted at No 7 on the
Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. It
sold 125, 000 copies during the first week and was Cassadee’s first song to
reach Gold status. This powerful country
ballad is a song of heartbreak: “You said you don’t want me anymore/And you
left me/Standing on a corner cryin’/Feeling like a fool for trying/I don’t even
remember why I’m/Wasting all these tears on you/I wish I could erase our
memory/Cause you didn’t give a damn about me/Oh, finally I’m through/Wasting
all these tears on you/These tears on you”.
‘I Wish I Could Break Your Heart’ is a particularly strong song that
begins with these words of revenge: “I wish I could break your heart/I wish I
could bring you down/Just for a second teach you a lesson/About bein’ alone in
the dark/I wish I could make you cry/So hard you can barely breathe/Maybe you
just might know what it feels like/To be me”.
Cassadee, Blair Daly, and Troy Verges wrote ‘Everybody
Sings’. It finds Pope in party mode:
“We’re dancing like fools/With the music blasting/Trying not to spill the
drinks/In our glasses/No, we’re not goin’ home/’Til the taps run dry/We’re all
shining in our own spotlight/Singing every line/It feels so right”. ‘You Hear a Song’ is a serious ballad that
speaks of how, often our love interest can see the positive in us and life,
when we just can’t: “A one note symphony/Baby come on and sing it back to me/I
see a mess in the mirror, you see the girl of your dreams/I see the dark clouds
rollin’ in/You see the sky I can’t see/I hear this melody coming out all
wrong/It sounds like the chaos I hear in my head all night long/You hear a song
(3X)”.
‘This Car’ was written by Pope, David Hodges, and Gordie
Sampson. It is contemporary country in
style and is not the first song in music history to link a mode of
transportation with a love relationship: “5 years in the blink of an eye/Still
smiling cause you’re next to me/We fought, made up, got lost, made love in the
back seat/So many stories in this steel and glass/Yeah, there’s no wonder why
we fell so fast/From the first time you opened the door/Well, it felt like the
beginning of something more. ‘One Song
Away’ was composed by Hillary Lindsey, Troy Verges, Aaron Pearce, and Mike Green. Lindsey has worked with artists such as Faith
Hill, Shakira, and Bon Jovi. Here we
have a well executed contemporary country ballad that finds Cassadee lonesome:
“Late at night/Can’t go to sleep/It’s just me and the radio/Every single
melody/Is wrecking me/And I know I’m getting close/To losing all control and
picking up the phone/I’m one song away from/Breaking down and calling you
up/And each one that plays is telling me that I’m still in love”.
Max Martin, Shellback, and Savan Kotecha wrote ‘Easier to
Lie’. It has Cassadee thinking out loud
after being unfaithful: “You know that I’ve been cryin’/So you ask what’s goin’
on/Your arm’s around my shoulder/You’ve got no clue what I’ve done/Cause you
don’t see the guilt in me/And that just makes it worse/Yeah, that just makes it
worse”. The next song is a pretty
one. Many females will be able to relate
to ‘11’ and the tale it tells: “I was a little too young and a little too dumb/To
ever think the day would come/When Dad would drive away and take his love with
him/So I grew up fast in a whole new world/Waved goodbye to that little girl/I
can see her now/Innocent and seven/I wish I had never turned 11”. ‘Proved You Wrong’ has a bouncy pop sound and
finds Cassadee emotionally strong and determined: “It’s easy letting go of
us/Said I didn’t even have the guts/Yet here I am packing up/I’m taking my
heart back ‘cause I’ve had enough.../Hey...I’m done with you and all the lies
you made/You were such a mistake”.
The deluxe edition of FRAME BY FRAME includes four
additional tracks. Pope, Liz Rose, and
Busbee penned the first one. Many
couples who have been together for ages will be envious of the passion
expressed in ‘Edge of a Thunderstorm’.
Witness these lyrics: “I’ll tell you right now, I never felt like this/The
touch of your hand, the thought of your kiss/Yeah, yeah, yeah/It’s a powerful
thing washing over me/I’m reminding myself, don’t forget to breathe/Yeah, yeah,
yeah/So right, the way you look at me/Feels like something’s calling/Maybe I’m
gonna get swept away/I’ll worry ‘bout that some sunny day/Cause I can’t wait to
taste that rain, whoah”. ‘Cinematic’ is
a cheerful country song. It contains
frisky lyrics I could hear Britney Spears singing: “You’re so cinematic, your
touch I got to have it/Every scene you’re making me believe/It doesn’t have to
be on the other movie screen/Red hot, non-stop, we got cinematic love,
cinematic love/Rated R in our secret spot, hoping we don’t get busted by the
cops/Heating up baby, ready or not/I’ve been waiting all this time for the
fairy tale to come alive”. The last two
tracks are decent acoustic takes on ‘Good Times’ and ‘Wasting All These Tears’.
Instrumentalists used on the album include Jerry McPherson,
Dann Huff, Tom Bukovac, and Jimmie Sloas.
Instruments used include: guitars, ganjo, banjo, mandolin, bouzouki,
fiddle, B3 organ, and accordion. Fans of
Taylor Swift and Miranda Lambert will love the modern country songs on this
record. Pope’s vocals remind me a lot of
earlier era Miley Cyrus on songs such as ‘Party in the U.S.A.’ and ‘The
Driveway’. This album gives us an up
close look at the heart of Cassadee.
There is no doubt that she is quite talented and I look forward to
hearing her follow-up release. I’m
rating FRAME BY FRAME-DELUXE EDITION 90%.
For more info visit: www.cassadeepope.com
and www.republicnashville.com.